Some encouraging news...
We’ve all heard the discouraging news about the decline of the church in the western world. As I am attending a pastors’ conference these couple of days there are some encouraging words being shared.
One of those has to do with, of all things, evangelism. When you think of the most recognizable group taking part in door to door efforts to bring people into a belief system it’s probably the mormons who come to mind. And truth be told, when older adults are asked how many of them were part of some other church or belief when they were young, mormons raise their hands 26% of the time. They had grown up in a household that believed something else, but they were proselytized somewhere along the way. When Lutheran Church Missouri Synod members are asked the same question, 32% raise their hands! Our efforts at evangelism, sharing the good news about Jesus, have been effective all along!
It’s the retention rate, however, that’s the problem. The children we are raising in the church are leaving somewhere along the way: after confirmation, after high school graduation, etc.
In the coming weeks I’ll have some thoughts on the retention rates as well as some words to share about the intensity of Christian faith in America. Until then, remember: it’s a great time to be a part of Christ’s people!
After a little time away, some thoughts on confirmation.
In yesterday’s worship, we had the service to confirm the twenty-two young men and women in this year’s class. Each came forward to have their confirmation verse read, at which time a blessing was given and a prayer for them was offered. During this their families, mentors, and friends stood in the congregation.
It is a culmination in a sense, but only “one step among many” in another. It is the culmination of their rudimentary education concerning the new life given them at their baptism. It’s that descriptor, rudimentary, which makes this confirmation but one step on their life’s journey to know better their Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. There is ever so much more to learn (and love!) about God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I was reminded of an incident when I was working over the summer during high school. I was working for Meyer Building Company (whose unofficial motto was something like “Rome wasn’t built in a day. But Meyer Building Company wasn’t around then!”). Our lunch time habit was to knock off work at noon and listen to Paul Harvey for fifteen minutes while we ate. For the next fifteen minutes we would talk, though you were welcome to use that time for brief nap.
One day the four older men, each a member of the congregation where my father was pastor and my mother was the musician, talked about their confirmation verses. They quoted them and talked about what they meant. When it came to me, the pastor’s kid, I didn’t know what mine had been. That made me do some research that very night!
I have since committed my verse to memory and found it a very encouraging bit of scripture. If you cannot remember yours, spend some time looking it up. If it was given to you by the congregation, I’m sure it was given with some serious intent to be a blessing for you for the rest of your life. In some of the congregations I’ve served as pastor we have used the confirmation verse in the funeral service, as well.
“My sheep hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:27. That’s certainly one worth knowing and cherishing.
On the receiving end of wonderful care
As a pastor I have more opportunities to visit hospitals than the average member of the community. In the time here in Peoria I’ve been impressed with the three main hospitals. I must say that the architecture in them is befuddling until you figure out their systems. But the care in them is remarkable.
And when I say care I mean (1) the care of the facilities (clean and well kept), (2) the care of security and confidentiality, and (3) the customer care they extend. Jami and I were on the receiving end of the latter earlier this week and we both feel that she was in good hands the entire time.
It had been some time since I had waited for someone in surgery. The last time we received timely reports from the volunteers staffing the waiting room. What a marvel now to be updated through a status board, replete with color codes to let you know if your loved (by their 7-digit number) was in pre-op, in the midst of the procedure, or in recovery. Since I had given them my cell number, I received text updates, too.
All of these advancements are simply the extension of the care our loving Father in heaven provides for us. He did not merely set the cosmos in motion and step away. No, He is intimately involved in our care, day-in and day-out, through His Holy Spirit and His only-begotten Son, Jesus, about whom St. Paul wrote to the Colossians in the first chapter: 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
God bless your Holy Week with an ever-deepening appreciation of God’s care in time and His providential care for the hereafter in eternity.